The truth is stranger than fiction: Rick Geary’s Gothic murder tales

Abstract

ABSTRACTRick Geary weds Gothic horror tropes with the traditions of true crime comics in A Treasury of Victorian Murder Compendium I and II. Geary retells the familiar lurid tales of some of the most famous murderers in both Victorian England, such as Jack the Ripper, and nineteenth- and twentieth-century America, such as H.H. Holmes and Lizzy Borden. By employing a number of paratextual and extratextual elements, such as bibliographies, maps and timelines, Geary heightens the mystery and uncertainty surrounding these events rather than providing the comfort of certainty. The reader remains active beyond the final panel, searching for peace of mind, perhaps, and a definitive answer. A reflection, perhaps, of the cacophony or information everyone must sort through, and the uncertainty of a society too often plagued by senseless and unexpected violence.